Schools are heading for a “perfect storm” as they face a shortage of teachers at the same time as pupil numbers are rising, an MP has warned.

Gateshead MP Ian Mearns said schools were struggling to recruit enough staff to teach key subjects such as maths and science.

And their difficulties are particularly worrying because there is a growing north-south divide in terms of school results, he said.

The MP is a member of the Commons Education Committee, which is holding an inquiry into whether schools face a recruitment crisis and what should be done to help.

The Committee is to quiz Education Secretary Nicky Morgan in a Commons hearing, and has asked people involved in the teaching profession to write to it with their experiences.

Official figures show the number of people applying for teacher training courses fell by five per cent in the North East in the past year.

Data from UCAS, the body which processes applications for higher education courses, shows the number of applications in the region fell by 290 months, with 6,220 applications in 2015 compared to 6,510 a year ago.

But schools will need more teachers than before, because the number of pupils attending secondary school will rise by a fifth over the next nine years.

Government predictions, based on birth rates, show the number of pupils attending England’s secondary schools set to rise by 547,000 between 2015 and 2024, to a total of 2.74 million.

The number of pupils in primary school is predicted to rise by 336,000 in the same period, up to 4.71 million.

Mr Mearns said: “If you look at particular subject specialisms such as maths, science, design and technology and IT, they are all suffering shortfalls.

“So it’s not just a case of looking at the total figures, because you can’t teach maths with a PE teacher.”

He added: “You don’t train teachers overnight, You have to get teachers doing the correct degree courses and then getting them on to teacher training courses.

So we have a concern. There is a kind of perfect storm heading towards state education.”

And he warned: “It looks like there is a growing north south divide in terms of academic achievement.”

Ian Mearns MP for Gateshead

Sir Michael Wilshaw, the head of school inspection service Ofsted, highlighted the challenge facing North East schools in a hard-hitting speech at the NorthEast Summit at St James Park in October.

He told attending heads and other senior teachers: “A third of the region’s secondary school pupils, around 40,000 in total, attend schools that are less than good. In some local authorities the figure is as high as two thirds.”

But he admitted: “Teacher supply is another issue that I know is exercising many of you in this room today . . . well publicised shortages in many key subjects are being exacerbated because new recruits are not necessarily going where they are needed most.”

Nicky Morgan, the Education Committee, has written to the Committee to insist that most schools currently have enough staff.

But she said some face “significant recruitment challenges”.

In her letter she suggested that a shortage of teachers could be linked to the economy improving.

She said: “Whilst we have made substantial progress in recent years, we recognise that teacher recruitment - particularly in key subjects such as maths and sciences - becomes more difficult as increased opportunities open up to graduates in a strengthening economy.

“At the time of the last census, the national data showed that there are a sufficient number of teachers in our schools.

“But that does not mean that individual schools are not experiencing significant recruitment challenges.”

The Government has been helping schools recruit and retain teachers, for example by giving them a bigger role in teacher training and more flexibility in how they pay teachers, Mrs Morgan said.